[Ifeffit] Solution to running Demeter on an ORNL computer

[Matt Newville]

Hi Dave,

The main reasoning for changing the installation location to the Users
folder was so that installation doesn't require Admin permission to write
to, say, C:\Program Files.  In the new scheme, everything is being written
to a folder that the unprivileged user has complete write access.  You
should not need Admin permissions to write these files to your disk.

If your organization requires Admin permission to install anything at all,
why can't they also fix the location and permissions during the
installation process?    That's sort of what you did by specifying the user
folder.  But if you need elevated permission to "install software" (and,
wait, *do* you need elevated permission to write files to C:\Users\You?
Because you probably write executable files there all the time anyway, like
in a browser cache) why not have the installation process move or fix the
permissions so the unprivileged user account can access it?   If they
aren't doing that (fixing permissions), it seems like it must cause
problems with other software too, no?

So I sympathize, and I know it's not your choice, but this seems like a
problem that we cannot solve.   Of course, the right solution is to fix the
IT department. ;)



On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Mullins, David R. <mullinsdr at ornl.gov>
wrote:

> After having run Athena and Artemis for years on my office computer in Oak
> Ridge they suddenly stopped working. The command prompt window and “credits
> window” appeared briefly and then shut down. I tried upgrading from v 9.21
> to v 9.24. This didn’t help. The problem appears to be similar to what was
> reported in October 2015 by Matt Noerpel on EPA computers.
>
>
>
> The problem is related to the restricted Administrator privileges imposed
> by ORNL IT. To install new software we temporarily obtain Administrator
> privileges. When we do this it changes our User Directory from our standard
> User Directory to Admin. Demeter’s default is to install in the current
> User Directory which is now the Admin directory and apparently programs
> installed there won’t run when Administrator privileges are gone.
>
>
>
> To solve the problem I changed the installation directory from Admin to my
> User Directory name in the long line “Install Demeter in …”. Note that I
> just substituted my User Directory name for Admin and didn’t change any of
> the other directory specifications.
>
>
>
> Hope this helps. I suspect that as time goes by many other national labs
> and companies will institute similarly restrictive Admin privileges.
>
>
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> **********************
>
> David R. Mullins
>
> Oak Ridge National Laboratory
>
> PO Box 2008, MS 6201
>
> Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6201
>
>
>
> PH: 865-574-2796
>
> FAX: 865-241-5152
>
> E-MAIL: mullinsdr at ornl.gov
>
> WWW:http://www.ornl.gov/sci/csd/Research_areas/SCC_group.html
>
>
>
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--Matt
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